Want to take amazing snaps? A little help and the inspiring surroundings of Malaysia’s Langkawi island are all you need.

Snap happy: Amateur photographers on the course (Picture: File)

The trend for learning holidays, from cooking in Tuscany to Cantonese in Hong Kong, continues to grow, which is great news if you like to come back from your holiday with more than just a tan.

At The Andaman, a five-star resort hotel on Malaysia’s Langkawi island, educational offerings are headed up by a resident marine biologist who lead tours of the island’s coral reefs and mangrove swamps, as well as one of the world’s oldest rainforests. Photography is hosted by Andrea Fazzari, a New Yorker who has snapped for Vanity Fair and the Wall Street Journal.

Fazzari is here to launch her new photography guide and takes me on a one-off masterclass. I quickly see why taking pictures might be popular here: macaque monkeys clamber in the rainforest that surrounds the hotel and the cliff-top spa and many of the 186 rooms look out on to a beach that National Geographic declared the ninth prettiest in the world.

The hotel’s vibe is steamy, tropical luxury with an eco focus. Giant lizards stroll around the grounds and on our first night a young wild boar canters along the beach. You wouldn’t want to sit about in tutorials here, so the photography course is arranged as a way of exploring the island – visiting markets or attending a cooking class – but as you’re on holiday, rather than at school, there’s always the possibility of sacking it all off and splashing about in a kayak or flopping on the beach, too.

Langkawi boasts some of the world’s most beautiful beaches (Picture: File)

On our first day we head out to Kampung Bawah, a traditional Malaysian village, where we chew betel leaf, smoke local rokok daun palm leaf cigarettes and a man climbs a coconut tree while smiley children scuttle around. It’s the sort of terribly tropical fodder that fills Facebook albums.

I ask Fazzari for some tips. Straight away, she explains midday is not a good time to be taking photos because of the harsh light. ‘I never shoot between 10am and 3pm,’ she says. As we are there for lunch, there is no way of getting around the lighting issue, so we move on to discussing the photos I have taken of some children. I think my pictures look staged and ask her if it is a problem. ‘Don’t be afraid to politely ask people to move for you, some people like being photographed because it’s flattering,’ she says, before pointing out that so many of the world’s most famous photographers use the most elaborate set-ups to get the shot they want.

A couple of days later, near the end of my time on Langkawi, after seeing eagles, bats and more monkeys in the Kilim mangrove forest, being pampered silly in the spa and knocking back cocktails alongside the backpackers on Pantai Cenang beach, I have amassed a variety of pictures. I take them to Fazzari for some feedback.

Looking at one of my many cliched sunset-over-the-bay efforts, she offers: ‘The colours are pretty but this gives you no clue as to where it is.’ And that’s about as harsh as it gets. She talks to me about composition, lighting, context and subject, and that there’s little context to the shot.

‘It could be anywhere,’ she says. We leaf through a book of pictures she took in India and it’s obvious how much more there is to them: more colours, more interest and keys that place them geographically.

I leave feeling satisfied I’ve something to think about for next time and head down to join the rest of our party for breakfast. Suddenly a tag-team of monkeys are in the middle of our table, tucking into smoked salmon on rye. Amidst the shrieking, it occurs to me that in photography, technique is one thing and having amenable subjects is another but as they scarper off into the jungle, croissants in hand, I realise it’s also about timing.

The archipelago of Langkawi comprises 99 islands and, at just over 25km across, the main island of Pulau Langkawi is great for exploring the regions’s abundant wildlife, including its coral reefs, which are some of the world’s most bio-diverse.

The underwater classroom

Langkawi’s geological and scientific importance won it Unesco Geopark status in 2007 and Gerry Goeden, a marine biologist, and Irshad Mobarak, an award-winning naturalist, lead marine walks inside Datai Bay’s 6,000-year-old reef. The tour starts at 8am, and while Long-tailed macaques chase grapsus crabs on the rocks, you get an introduction to these bizarre and crucial ecosystems, while knee-deep in the low tide of the Andaman Sea.

After helping clear dead coral left after the 2008 Tsunami (the reef took most of the wave’s force, severely limiting its impact on the island) various conservation issues are touched on, including the local consequences of over-fishing. Of course, you’ll also meet the reef’s residents: from rugby ball-sized giant clams to mantis shrimps (whose bullet-speed punch is capable of breaking aquarium glass), along with cucumber-sized sea slugs and a variety of different coral. A little early for a biology lesson? Bear in mind that the bay was formed 10million years ago by a meteorite crash, which created a perfect crescent-shaped beach, one that National Geographic declared to be the ninth best in the world – classrooms don’t get much prettier.

Seven nights at the five-star The Andaman from £1,379pp on a room-only basis ( www.travelbag.co.uk ).Malaysia Airlines flies from London Heathrow to Langkawi via Kuala Lumpur twice a day, 14 times a week ( www.malaysiaairlines.com ).